Answers

This came up on Gardener's Question time recently - consensus was, if you use eco products, environmentally friendly as Moongrower mentions, then its okay, but if you use ordinary detergents, provided you haven't used too much, then putting that on the soil for flowers and shrubs is okay,as long as you don't do it all the time, but not in pots and not on food crops.

Washing machine in large bathroom. Slosh out through window down sloping roof out kitchen extension into water butt - drain from there straight onto the garden! Hubs shouts at me 'cos he wants water standing for his pots.